Tom Peters’ The Talent50 09.17.05 1. People First! “When land was the productive asset, nations battled over it. The same is happening now for talented people.” Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH Talent! Tina Brown: “The first thing to do is to hire enough talent that a critical mass of excitement starts to grow.” Source: Business2.0 Whoops: Jack didn’t have a vision!* *GE = “Talent Machine” (Ed Michaels) Headhunter “Excellence”? (CEO Performance vs S&P 500) Korn Ferry/Tom Neff: +1.1% Heidrick & Struggles/ Gerry Roche: -5.2% 2. Soft Is Hard. 3. FUNDAMENTAL PREMISE: We Are in an Age of Talent/Creativity/ Intellectual-capital Added. “Human creativity is the ultimate economic resource.” —Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class Age of Agriculture Industrial Age Age of Information Intensification Age of Creation Intensification Source: Murikami Teruyasu, Nomura Research Institute Agriculture Age (farmers) Industrial Age (factory workers) Information Age (knowledge workers) Conceptual Age (creators and empathizers) Source: Dan Pink, A Whole New Mind “The Dawn of the Creative Age” “There’s a whole new class of workers in the U.S. that’s 38million strong: the creative class. At its core are the scientists, engineers, architects, designers, educators, artists, musicians and entertainers whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, or new content. Also included are the creative professions of business and finance, law, healthcare and related fields, in which knowledge workers engage in complex problem solving that involves a great deal of independent judgment. Today the creative sector of the U.S. economy, broadly defined, employs more than 30% of the workforce (more than all of manufacturing) and accounts for more than half of all wage and salary income (some $2 trillion)—almost as much as the manufacturing and service sectors together. Indeed, the United States has now entered what I call the Creative Age.” —“America’s Looming Creativity Crisis”/ Richard Florida/ HBR/10.04 U.S. Patent Office/Patents Granted 1985 Venezuela Argentina Mexico Brazil South Korea 15 …………… 12 …………… 35 …………... 30 …………… 50 …………… 1998 29 46 77 88 3,362 Source: Juan Enriquez/As the Future Catches You “My wife and I went to a [kindergarten] parent-teacher conference and were informed that our budding refrigerator artist, Christopher, would be receiving a grade of Unsatisfactory in art. We were shocked. How could any child—let alone our child—receive a poor His teacher informed us that he had refused to color within the lines, which was a state requirement for demonstrating ‘grade-level motor skills.’ ” —Jordan Ayan, AHA! grade in art at such a young age? 15 “Leading” Biz Schools Design/Core: 0 Design/Elective: 1 Creativity/Core: 0 Creativity/Elective: 4 Innovation/Core: 0 Innovation/Elective: 6 Source: DMI/Summer 2002 Research by Thomas Lockwood 4. Talent “Excellence” in Every Part of the Organization. Wegman’s: #1/100 Best Companies to Work for 84%: Grocery stores “are all alike” 46%: additional spend if customers have an “emotional connection” to a grocery store rather than “are satisfied” (Gallup) “Going to Wegman’s is not just shopping, it’s an event.” —Christopher Hoyt, grocery consultant “You cannot separate their strategy as a retailer from their strategy as an employer.” —Darrell Rigby, Bain & Co. 5. P.O.T./ Pursuit Of Talent = OBSESSION. “The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it. They revel in the talent of others.” Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius PARC’s Bob Taylor: “Connoisseur of Talent ” Les Wexner: From sweaters to people! 6. Talent Masters Understand Talent’s Intangibles. Visibly energetic/ Passionate/ Enthusiastic … about everything. Engaging/ Inspires others. (Inspires the interviewer!) Loves messes & pressure. Impatient/ Action fanatic. A finisher. Exhibits: Fat “WOW Project” Portfolio. (Loves to talk about her work.) Smart. Curious/ Eclectic interests/ A little (or more) weird. Well-developed sense of humor/ Fun to be around. ****** No. 1 re bosses: Exceptional talent selection & development record. (Former co-workers: “Did you visibly grow while working with X?” / “How has the department/team grown on a ‘world-class’ scale during X’s tenure?”) Q: “If it were your $50K [life’s savings] and my $50K, what sort of Waiters would we look for?” A: “Enthusiasts!” 7. HR Is “Cool.” Chicago: HRMAC “support function” / “cost center” / “bureaucratic drag” or … Are you “Rock Stars of the Age of Talent” “HR doesn’t tend to hire a lot of independent thinkers or people who stand up as moral compasses.” —Garold Markle, former Shell Offshore HR Exec (FC/08.05) 8. HR Sits at The Head Table. DD$21M 9. Re-name “HR.” Talent Department People Department Center for Talent Excellence Seriously Cool People Who Recruit & Develop Seriously Cool People Etc. “H.R.” to “H.E.D.” ??? Human Enablement Department 10. There Is an “HR Strategy”/ “HR Vision” Our Mission To develop and manage talent; to apply that talent, throughout the world, for the benefit of clients; to do so in partnership; to do so with profit. WPP “Omnicom very simply is about talent. It’s about the acquisition of talent, providing the atmosphere so talent is attracted to it.” —John Wren What’s your company’s … EVP? Employee Value Proposition, per Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent; IBP/Internal Brand Promise per TP EVP = Challenge, professional growth, respect, satisfaction, opportunity, reward Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent 11. Acquire for Talent! Omnicom's acquisitions: “not for “buying talent;” “deepen a size per se”; relationship with a client.” Source: Advertising Age 12. There Is a FORMAL Recruitment Strategy. Cirque du Soleil! Cirque du Soleil: Talent (12 fulltime scouts, database of 20,000). R&D (40% of profits; 2X avg corp). Controls (shows are profit centers; partners like Disney offset costs; $100M on $500M). Scarcity builds buzz/brand (1 new show per year. “People tell me we’re leaving money on the table by not duplicating our shows. They’re right.” —Daniel Lamarre, president). Source: “The Phantasmagoria Factory”/Business 2.0/1-2.2004 13. There Is a FORMAL Leadership Development Strategy. 14. There is a “World Class” Leadership Development CENTER. Crotonville!* *No B-schools! DD: 0 to 60mph in a flash (months) Getting to WOW Through Mastery of … 25. The Sales [PPT is here.] Getting Things Done: The Power & Implementation34. [PPT is here.] Presentation Excellence: The PresX56 [PPT is here.] The Interviewing Excellence: The IntX31 [PPT is here.] 15. There Is a FORMAL STRATEGIC HR Review Process. 16. The “Top100,” and Every Unit’s Top10, Are Consciously Managed. “In most companies, the Talent Review Process is a farce. At GE, Jack Welch and his two top HR people visit each division for a day. They review the top 20 to 50 people by name. They talk about Talent Pool The Talent Review Process is a contact sport at GE; it has the intensity and the importance of the budget process at most companies.” strengthening issues. —Ed Michaels 17. “People”/ Talent” Reviews Are the FIRST Reviews. 18. HR Strategy = BUSINESS Strategy. 19. Make it a “Cause Worth Signing Up For.” G.H.: “Create a ‘cause,’ not a ‘business.’ ” 20. Unleash “Their” Full Potential! Organizing Genius / Warren Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman “Groups become great only when everyone in them, leaders and members alike, is free to do his or her absolute best.” “The best thing a leader can do for a Great Group is to allow its members to discover their greatness.” Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “free to do his or her absolute best” … “allow its members to discover their greatness.” “Firms will not ‘manage the careers’ of their employees. They will provide opportunities to enable the employee to develop identity and adaptability and thus be in charge of his or her own career.” Tim Hall et al., “The New Protean Career Contract” A “Life Success Company” RE/MAX: Source: Everybody Wins, Phil Harkins & Keith Hollihan “Agent-centric”: “You’re not in the real estate business anymore; you’re in the real estate agent business!” Source: Everybody Wins, Phil Harkins & Keith Hollihan Ye gads: “Thomas Stanley has not only found no correlation between success in school and an ability to accumulate wealth, he’s actually found a negative correlation. ‘It seems that school-related evaluations are poor predictors of economic success,’ Stanley concluded. What did predict success was a willingness to take risks. Yet the success-failure standards of most schools penalized risk takers. Most educational systems reward those who play it safe. As a result, those who do well in school find it hard to take risks later on.” Richard Farson & Ralph Keyes, Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins 21. Set Sky High Standards. From “1, 2 or you’re out” [JW] to … “Best Talent in each industry segment to build best proprietary intangibles” [EM] Source: Ed Michaels, War for Talent 22. Enlist Everyone in Challenge Century21. “If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself you won’t get noticed, and that increasingly means you won’t get paid much either.” Michael Goldhaber, Wired Distinct … or … Extinct New Work SurvivalKit.2005 1. Mastery! (Best/Absurdly Good at Something!) 2. “Manage” to Legacy (All Work = “Memorable”/“Braggable” WOW Projects!) 3. A “USP”/Unique Selling Proposition (R.POV8: Remarkable Point of View … captured in 8 or less words) 4. Rolodex Obsession (From vertical/hierarchy/“suck up” loyalty to horizontal/“colleague”/“mate” loyalty) 5. Entrepreneurial Instinct (A sleepless … Eye for Opportunity! E.g.: Small Opp for Independent Action beats faceless part of Monster Project) 6. CEO/Leader/Businessperson/Closer (CEO, Me Inc. Period! 24/7!) 7. Master of Improv (Play a dozen parts simultaneously, from Chief Strategist to Chief Toilet Scrubber) 8. Sense of Humor (A willingness to Screw Up & Move On) 9. Comfortable with Your Skin (Bring “interesting you” to work!) 10. Intense Appetite for Technology (E.g.: How Cool-Active is your Web site? Do you Blog?) 11. Embrace “Marketing” (Your own CSO/Chief Storytelling Officer) 12. Passion for Renewal (Your own CLO/Chief Learning Officer) 13. Execution Excellence! (Show up on time! Leave last!) 23. Pursue the Best! “Differentiation is all about being extreme, rewarding the best and weeding out the ineffective. … You build strong teams by treating individuals differently. Just look at the way baseball teams pay 20-game winning pitchers and 40-plus homerun hitters.” —Jack Welch “best person in the world” —Arthur Blank Did We Say “Talent Matters”? “The top software developers are more productive than average software developers not by a factor of 10X or 100X, or even 1,000X, but 10,000X.” —Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Scientist, Microsoft “THE HEART OF CELERA … IS THE WORLD’S LARGEST PRIVATE SUPERCOMPUTER … FED 24 HOURS A DAY … BY SEQUENCING ROBOTS … AND CREATED-PROGRAMMEDCONTROLLED … BY A DOZEN GREAT MINDS.” Source: Juan Enriquez/As the Future Catches You 24. Up or Out. “We believe companies can increase their market cap 50 percent in 3 years. Steve Macadam at Georgia- changed 20 of his 40 box plant managers to put more talented, higher paid managers in charge. He increased Pacific profitability from $25 million to $80 million in 2 years.” Ed Michaels, War for Talent 25. Ensure that the Review Process Has INTEGRITY. 25 = 100* * “But what do I do that’s more important than developing people? I don’t do the damn work. They do.” 26. Pay Up! “Top performing companies are two to four times more likely than the rest to pay what it takes to prevent losing top performers.” Ed Michaels, War for Talent (05.17.00) Costco *$17/hour (42% above Sam’s); very good health plan; low t/o, low shrinkage *Low margins (“When I started, Sears, Roebuck was the Costco of the country, but they allowed someone to come in under them”—Jim Sinegal) Source: “How Costco Became the Anti-Wal*Mart/NYT/07.17.05 27. Training I: Train! Train! Train! 3 Weeks in May “Training” & Prep: 187 “Work”: 41 (“Other”: 17) 1% vs. 367% Divas do it. Violinists do it. Sprinters do it. Golfers do it. Pilots do it. Soldiers do it. Surgeons do it. Cops do it. Astronauts do it. Why don’t businesspeople do it? “Knowledge becomes obsolete incredibly fast. The continuing professional education of adults is the No. 1 industry in the next 30 years … mostly on line.” Peter Drucker, Business 2.0 Edward Jones’ Training Machine* 146 hours/employee/year New hires: 4X avg. 3.8% of payroll * #1, “The 100 Best Companies To Work For”/Fortune/01.2003 28. Training II: 100% “Business People.” 29. Training III: 100% LEADERS. “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” —Ralph Nader 30. Training IV: Boss as Trainerin-Chief. Workout = 24 DPY in the Classroom 31. Open Communication: NO BARRIERS. “The organizations we created have become tyrants. They have taken control, holding us fettered, creating barriers that hinder rather than help our businesses. The lines that we drew on our neat organizational diagrams have turned into walls that no one can scale or penetrate or even peer over.” —Frank Lekanne Deprez & René Tissen, Zero Space: Moving Beyond Organizational Limits. 32. Respect! “It was much later that I realized Dad’s secret. He gained respect by giving it. He talked and listened to the fourth-grade kids in Spring Valley who shined shoes the same way he talked and listened to a bishop or a college president. He was seriously interested in who you were and what you had to say.” Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Respect “What creates trust, in the end, is the leader’s manifest respect for the followers.” — Jim O’Toole, Leading Change 33. Embrace the Whole Individual. 34. Build Places of “Grace.” “My favorite word is grace – grace, saving grace, grace under fire, Grace Kelly. How we live whether it’s amazing contributes to beauty – whether it’s how we treat other people or the environment.”—Celeste Cooper, designer Rodale’s on “Grace” … elegance … charm … loveliness … poetry in motion … kindliness .. benevolence … benefaction … compassion … beauty 35. MBWA*: Visible Leadership! *Managing By Wandering Around “The first and greatest imperative of command is to be present in person. Those who impose risk must be seen to share it.” —John Keegan, The Mask of Command 36. Thank You! “The deepest human need need to be appreciated.” is the William James 37. Promote for “people skills.” (THE REST IS DETAILS.) 33 Division Titles. 26 League Pennants. 14 World Series: Earl Weaver—0. Tom Kelly—0. Jim Leyland—0. Walter Alston—1AB. Tony LaRussa—132 games, 6 seasons. Tommy Lasorda—P, 26 games. Sparky Anderson—1 season. “When assessing candidates, the first thing I looked for was energy and enthusiasm for execution. Does she talk about the thrill of getting things done, the obstacles overcome, the role her people played —or does she keep wandering back to strategy or philosophy?” —Larry Bossidy, Honeywell/AlliedSignal, in Execution 38. Honor Youth. “Why focus on these late teens and twentysomethings? Because they are the first young who are both in a position to change the world, and are actually doing so. … For the first time in history, children are more comfortable, knowledgeable and literate than their parents about an innovation central to society. … The Internet has triggered the first industrial revolution in history to be led by the young.” The Economist 39. Provide Early Leadership Assignments. The WOW! Project. “Think BIG … Think DIFFERENT … Think COOL” … “Appropriate ‘benchmark’: earn a place in the history books … be able to say to your grandson/daughter, ’I was project manager of the Big Dig’” —TP/Bentley magazine Your Current Project? 1. Another day’s work/Pays the rent. 4. Of value. 7. Pretty Damn Cool/Definitely subversive. 10. WE AIM TO CHANGE THE WORLD. (Insane!/Insanely Great!/WOW!) The Project 50 Create Sell Implement Exit Traditional Emphasis 10% 0% 90% 0% Our View 30% 30% 30% 10% 40. Create a FORMAL System of Mentoring. W. L. Gore Quad/Graphics 41. Diversity! “Diversity defines the health and wealth of nations in a new century. Mighty is the mongrel. The hybrid is hip. The impure, the mélange, the adulterated, the blemished, the rough, the black-and-blue, the mixand-match – these people are inheriting the earth. Mixing is the new norm. Mixing trumps isolation. It spawns creativity, nourishes the human spirit, spurs economic growth and empowers nations.” G. Pascal Zachary, The Global Me: New Cosmopolitans and the Competitive Edge CM Prof Richard Florida on “Creative Capital”: “You cannot get a technologically innovative place unless it’s open to weirdness, eccentricity and difference.” Source: New York Times/06.01.2002 “Where do good new ideas come from? That’s simple! From differences. Creativity comes from unlikely juxtapositions. The best way to maximize differences is to mix ages, cultures and disciplines.” Nicholas Negroponte Duh! “We want our associate population to mirror our customer population at every level, from the executive suite all the way to the retail floor. In the marketplace, basically what I want to do is draw a concentric circle around every one of our 2,300 stores, and I want the assortment in that store to match the ethnicity of the neighborhood it’s in. Some neighborhoods are all Hispanic, so we can put in a full Hispanic format. That’s what Super Saver is. All the signage is in both languages. There’s a 100 percent Spanish-speaking staff in the store.” —Larry Johnston, CEO, Albertsons 42. WOMEN RULE.* *Duh. “AS LEADERS, WOMEN RULE: New Studies find that female managers outshine their male counterparts in almost every measure” Title, Special Report, Business Week “American women possess leadership abilities that are particularly effective in today’s organizations, yet their abilities remain undervalued and underutilized. In the future, what will distinguish one organization and one country from another will be its use of human resources. Today human resource utilization is not only a matter of social justice but a bottom-line issue.” Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret Women’s Strengths Match New Economy Imperatives: Link [rather than rank] workers; favor interactive-collaborative leadership style [empowerment beats top-down decision making]; sustain fruitful collaborations; comfortable with sharing information; see redistribution of power as victory, not surrender; favor multi-dimensional feedback; value technical & interpersonal skills, individual & group contributions equally; readily accept ambiguity; honor intuition as well as pure “rationality”; inherently flexible; appreciate cultural diversity. Source: Judy B. Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret 63 of 2,500 top earners in F500 8% Big 5 partners 14% partners at top 250 law firms 43% new med students; 26% med faculty; 7% deans Source: Susan Estrich, Sex and Power U.S. M.Mgt. 41% T.Mgt. 4% Peak Partic. Age 45 % Coll. Stud. 52% G.B. E.U. Ja. 29% 18% 6% 3% 2% <1% 22 27 19 50% 48% 26% Source: Judy Rosener, America’s Competitive Secret “Deloitte was doing a great job of hiring highperforming women; in fact, women often earned higher performance ratings than men in their first years with the firm. Yet the percentage of women decreased with step up the career ladder. … Most women weren’t leaving to raise families; they had weighed their options in Deloitte’s maledominated culture and found them wanting. Many, dissatisfied with a culture they perceived as endemic to professional service firms, switched professions.” Douglas McCracken, “Winning the Talent War for Women” [HBR] “The process of assigning plum accounts was largely unexamined. … Male partners made assumptions: ‘I wouldn’t put her on that kind of company because it’s a tough manufacturing environment.’ ‘That client is difficult to deal with.’ ‘Travel puts too much pressure on women.’ ” Douglas McCracken, “Winning the Talent War for Women” [HBR] Goldsmith College research (UK): Gender stereotypes re-enforced. Men who extol successes rewarded, women not. Men who face interviewer head on upgraded; women who look at floor or use sidelong glances do better. Women who nod repeatedly do better, not men. Men who give long answers score well, women who give short answers do well. (College grads seeking jobs; HR interviewers—2 M, 2F.) Source: The Observer/ London The Core Argument 1. We are in a War for Talent. 2. The war will intensify. 3. Women are under-represented in our leadership ranks. 4. Women and men are different. 5. Women’s strengths match the New Economy’s leadership needs—to a striking degree. 6. Women are also the principal purchasers of goods and services—retail and commercial. 7. Ergo, women are a large part of “the answer” to the War for Talent issue/opportunity. 43. Hire (& Protect!) Weird! enough weird people in “Are there the lab these days?” V. Chmn., pharmaceutical house, to a lab director The Cracked Ones Let in the Light “Our business needs a massive transfusion of talent, and talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among non-conformists, dissenters and rebels.” David Ogilvy “Deviance tells the story of every mass market ever created. What Deviants, Inc. starts out weird and dangerous becomes America’s next big corporate payday. So are you looking for the next mass market idea? It’s out there … way out there.” Source: Ryan Matthews & Watts Wacker, Fast Company (03.02) Saviors-in-Waiting Disgruntled Customers Off-the-Scope Competitors Rogue Employees Fringe Suppliers Wayne Burkan, Wide Angle Vision: Beat the Competition by Focusing on Fringe Competitors, Lost Customers, and Rogue Employees Why Do I love Freaks? (1) Because when Anything Interesting happens … it was a freak who did it. (Period.) (2) Freaks are fun. (Freaks are also a pain.) (Freaks are never boring.) (3) We need freaks. Especially in freaky times. (Hint: These are freaky times, for you & me & the CIA & the Army & Avon.) (4) A critical mass of freaks-in-our-midst automatically make uswho-are-not-so-freaky at least somewhat more freaky. (Which is a Good Thing in freaky times—see immediately above.) (5) Freaks are the only (ONLY) ones who succeed—as in, make it into the history books. (6) Freaks keep us from falling into ruts. (If we listen to them.) (We seldom listen to them.) (Which is why most of us—and our organizations—are in ruts. Make that chasms.) 44. Cherish Boldness! No Wiggle Room! “Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy.” Nicholas Negroponte 45. We Are All Unique. One size NEVER fits all. One size fits Beware Standardized Evals: one. Period. 48 Players = 48 Projects = 48 different success measures. 46. Bosses “Win People Over.” WHAT AN IDIOT: “Instead of employees being in the driver’s seat, now we’re in the driver’s seat.” “Coaching is winning players over.” PJ: 47. GOAL: Voyages of Mutual Discovery. I am inalterably opposed to “organization change,” “empowerment,” “motivation.” The goal: to awaken the latent talent already within, by providing opportunities worthy of the individual’s investment of her or his most precious resources … time and emotional commitment. Leaders (Teachers) Do Not “Transform People”! Instead leaders (1) provide a context which is marked by (2) access to a luxuriant portfolio of meaningful opportunities (projects) which (3) allow people to fully (and safely, mostly—caveat: “they” don’t engage unless they’re “mad about something”) express their innate curiosity and (4) engage in a vigorous discovery voyage (alone and in small teams, assisted by an extensive self-constructed network) by which those people (5) go to-create places they (and their mentors-teachers-leaders) had never dreamed existed—and then the leaders (6) applaud like hell and stage “photo-ops” to commemorate the bravery of their “followers’ ” explorations! 48. Foster Independence. “You must realize that how you invest your human capital matters as much as how you invest your financial capital. Its rate of return determines your future options. Take a job for what it teaches you, not for what it pays. Instead of a potential employer asking, ‘Where do you see yourself in 5 years?’ you’ll ask, ‘If I invest my mental assets with you for 5 years, how much will they appreciate? How much will my portfolio of career options grow?’ ” Stan Davis & Christopher Meyer, futureWEALTH THE rise up and flee your cubicle STREET JOURNAL Adventures in Capitalism THE I work for a company called Me STREET JOURNAL Adventures in Capitalism Thriving in 24/7 (Sally Helgesen) START AT THE CORE. Nimbleness only possible if we “locate our inner voice,” take regular inventory of where we are. LEARN TO ZIGZAG. Think “gigs.” Think lifelong learning. Forget “old loyalty.” Work on optimism. CREATE OUR OWN WORK. Articulate your value. Integrate your passions. I.D. your market. Run your own business. WEAVE A STRONG WEB OF INCLUSION. Build your own support network. Master the art of “looking people up.” 49. Enthusiasm! BZ: “I am a … Dispenser of Enthusiasm!” “A leader is a dealer in hope.” Napoleon New Economy Biz Degree Programs MBA (Master of Business Administration) MMM1 (Master of Metaphysical Management) MMM2 (Master of Metabolic Management) MGLF (Master of Great Leaps Forward) MTD (Master of Talent Development) W/MwGTDw/oC (Woman/Man Who Gets Things Done without Certificate) DE (Doctor of Enthusiasm) 50. Talent = Brand. The Top 5 “Revelations” Better talent wins. Talent management is my job as leader. Talented leaders are looking for the moon and stars. Over-deliver on people’s dreams – they are volunteers. Pump talent in at all levels, from all conceivable sources, all the time. Source: Ed Michaels et al., The War for Talent Brand = Talent.